Let it Snow

I'm orginially from the New Orleans area, and didn't leave Louisiana until I left for my first job out of library school. I lived in the Houston area for two years, then I moved here to Warrenton. As you can guess, snow is pretty foreign to me. I've seen more snow this year than I've ever seen in my entire life.

They tell me that we've had an exceptionally mild winter. I think about that sometimes on my walk to work. I had applied to other jobs before I applied to FCPL; one of those places was a small system on the New Hampshire coast. It isn't far from Boston, and a family friend lives nearby. I got excited about it, and I cried when I received the "thanks, but no thanks" letter.

Well, it snows a lot in that area of New Hampshire. A lot (it's actually colder today in Fauquier County than it is there today, but take my word for it). And I'm very happy here in Virginia, and don't know that I would be in the frozen north.

But...snow! Do you remember the scene in The King & I when Anna is telling the royal wives and children about snow? And when Tuptim incorporates snow into the "Small House of Uncle Thomas" play, she says "snow" with such wonder? That's kind of how I felt when the first snow came down some Sundays ago.

Since I know nothing about snow, Snow Amazing: Cool Facts and Warm Tales was a fascinating read (even if you are a native, I'll bet there are lots of facts in here that you don't know). You'll learn how snow crystals are formed, how melting snow affects animals and people, read folktales about snow, learn about animal imprints in the snow, and learn how people travel in the snow, among many topics. There are many cool (ha ha) pictures of glaciers, skiers, snow, snow, and more snow, along with illustrations accompanying the folktales. It's probably not a book you'll read straight through; it's definitely a browsing book.

If you're looking for picture books about snow, consider these books:

Cat and Mouse in the Snow by Tomasz Bogacki

In the Snow by Sharon Phillips Denslow

Snow by Uri Shulevitz

Snowballs by Lois Ehlert

And two classics:

The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats

Katy and the Big Snow by Virginia Lee Burton